The Trailer, aka Koala
Koala joined our family in September of last year. We had been toying with the idea of getting a trailer of our own. It probably started when we vacationed with my Dad the September before that in his awesome Class A RV. We’d had a great time touring Utah National Parks, staying in RV parks, grilling / cooking in, pulling over part way through a long drive to make lunch or take a nap…we were hooked.
How awesome would it be, we thought, to get a travel trailer that we could tow behind our SUV, to take out on weekends, or longer trips. We started thinking ahead to having kids, and wanting to go on weekend adventures and road trips. Wouldn’t it be great to have a trailer that would be mostly packed, and to grab the kids and go (we realize it won’t exactly be that easy, but it would be easier!).
So we started looking, browsing websites, went to an RV expo, checked out local RV retailers, until we narrowed down the manufacturers, makes, models, and floor-plans that were within our weight and price range. Then we waited for a good deal to come along in the local area. When it finally did, we pounced on it. Turns out it was the best deal to order new, built to order, from Keystone RV in PA. You always end up paying a premium for anything in the immediate DC region… So, not only was the trailer brand new and exactly what we wanted, but it was cheaper by far than we had seen elsewhere. And, the salesman was great to boot. He told it to us straight, gave us all sorts of extra tips, and even humored me as I waffled on the color scheme. 🙂
All the searching eventually paid off, but it wasn’t without some troubles. For instance, we ran into a super shady salesman. Just that morning, we had been looking at the floor plan we wanted (queen bed, with a couch and a dinette across from it, under or right around 4,000 lbs). We had also looked at a trailer with a Murphy bed, which folds up during the day and then folds down over the couch at night (this was our second choice floor plan). That afternoon at another RV lot, the salesman told us pointblank that there was no such thing as a Murphy bed in a trailer, nor could we get our preferred floor plan in the weight range we wanted. Um, good bye…
After 7 weeks of waiting, our Koala arrived and we have been making good use of it ever since. Wait until we tell you about our first time out!
